In a sense, this was what most of us expected. New research by Pew has shown that of all tweeted links to popular Websites, as many as 66% were “shared by accounts with characteristics common among automated “bots,” rather than human users.” Meaning – bots were responsible for over 2/3rds of traffic.
Among popular news & current event Websites, 66% of tweeted links were made by suspected bots – identical to the overall average. The share of bot-created tweeted links was even higher among certain kinds of news Sites. For example, said the report, an estimated 89% of tweeted links to popular aggregation Sites that compiled stories from around the Web were posted by bots.
A relatively small number of highly active bots were responsible for a significant share of links to prominent news & media Sites. This analysis finds that the 500 most-active suspected bot accounts were responsible for 22% of the tweeted links to popular news & current events Sites over the period in which this study was conducted. By comparison, the 500 most-active human users were responsible for a much smaller share (an estimated 6%) of tweeted links to these outlets.
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To read up on the rest of this report, click here.
